AOTA members receive the biweekly OT Practice Pulse e-newsletter where we share resources and news from AOTA and other sources that directly affect occupational therapy practice—curated just for members! Here on the Checking the Pulse blog, I will share even more relevant and interesting news, videos, blogs, and more.

I read hundreds of articles about health, wellness, and policy every week to find the most engaging and enlightening content for you. Blog readers can stay in the know, go beyond the news, and find out how the latest health news affect occupational therapy.

AOTA's Checking the Pulse blog is written by digital editor Stephanie Yamkovenko who reads hundreds of health and policy articles weekly to find the most engaging and enlightening content. Go beyond the news and learn how it affects OT.

Fifteen Things OT Peeps Should Watch, Read, or Download This Summer

We all know the importance of leisure activities, so today we’re sharing several different ways for you to unwind and relax. Find a movie to watch tonight, a new TV show to get into, a perfect book for that trip to the beach, or a podcast to listen to on your commute.

Watch a Movie

1) Travis: A Soldier’s Story availableon Netflix

If you attended AOTA’s 2014 Annual Conference you probably remember Staff Sgt. Travis Mills and his fellow wounded warriors from the Welcome Ceremony. Travis is a quadruple amputee, and when he shared how OT helped him he said, “because of your profession I can get through everyday life easier and just about like I used to before.” The documentary Travis: A Soldier’s Story tells his story and highlights his physical and emotional challenges. Watch a trailer.

Koenig recommends this movie describing it as “an amazing movie of love, loss, friendship and the enduring, maddening power of family.” A struggling comedy writer moves home to help his sick mother and finds himself a stranger in his childhood home with his conservative father and younger sisters. Watch a trailer.

Start Watching a TV Series

4) Chef’s Table available on Netflix

Find out how some of the best chefs in the world got to where they are now (and see some beautiful and delicious food along the way!). The stories of the chefs are varied, but many of them share how cooking became their passion and purpose in life. Watch a trailer.

5) Switched at Birth watch on Freeform (formerly ABC family)

When two teenagers find out they were switched at birth, two polar-opposite families have to struggle to learn how to get along. OT practitioners would appreciate how the show focuses a lot on fighting discrimination against people who are deaf, in a wheelchair, etc.

6) The Crown available on Netflix

This show chronicles the life of Queen Elizabeth from the 1940s to modern times. The show starts when the queen, at 25, first ascends the throne. As a new wife and mom, she and her husband Prince Philip struggle to get used to their many new roles and the changing dynamics of their young family. Watch a trailer.

Read a Book

Nonfiction

7) The Fire Line by Fernanda Santos

It was one of the deadliest days in American firefighting when 19 of the 20 Granite Mountain Hotshots died fighting a wildfire in Arizona. New York Times journalist Fernanda Santos explores how the elite wildfire team came to be so loyal to one another, examines each of their lives and troubles, and shares the dangers of fighting wildfires. More about the book here.

8) Being Mortal by Atul Gawande

In Being Mortal, Gawande explores what he describes as the hardest challenge of medicine—dealing with death. Instead of carrying out devastating procedures to extend life, Gawande challenges the medical profession to focus more on quality of life and how to make a person’s last weeks or months be rich and dignified. More about the book here.

9) Patient H.M. by Luke Dittric

Following a lobotomy in 1953, Henry Molaison was unable to create long-term memories. This book tells the story of Patient H.M., as Henry was known, and how he became the most studied individuals in the history of neuroscience. Patient H.M. is readable and a page-turner, combining biography, memoir, and science journalism. More about the book here.

Fiction

10) Perfume River by Robert Olen Butler

Pulitzer-winning Butler’s new novel explores the effects that wars have on veterans and their families over successive generations. The story focuses on one family coming together after their father, a WWII veteran, dies. One son served in Vietnam the other defected to Canada and has been estranged from his family ever since. More about the book here.

11) Augustown by Kei Miller

In addition to skillful writing and enchanting storytelling, OT practitioners would appreciate the storylines of a woman who recently went blind, a child who experiences a traumatic event at school, a community that comes together, and a young woman trying to educate herself to have more opportunities for her and her son. The novel is set in Jamaica and focuses on history, race, class, collective memory, and more. More about the book here, which will be released on May 23.

12) Another Brooklyn by Jacqueline Woodson

This novel tells the story of a black girl who moved with her father and brother to Brooklyn from Tennessee in the 70s. You will meet the poor, the abused, the voiceless, and the dead. The short book is packed with thoughtful insights about our memories coming into contact with hard truths. More about the book here.

Listen to Podcasts

13) Happier

Gretchen Rubin’s podcast, Happier, is all about how to get more out of your everyday life and activities—something that will surely resonate with OT practitioners. Each episode brings practical and manageable advice about happiness and good habits.

14) Modern Love: The Boy Who Makes Waves

AOTA’s Melissa Stutzbach recommends this episode of Modern Love, which is about caregiver burnout and how to handle the mixed feelings associated with raising a child with a serious disability.

I enjoy reading books for fun. If anyone has read a good book on autism, can you please comment my way! Most books I have seen at bookstores are about parenting. As far as TV shows, I really enjoyed Switched at Birth! I was very interesting to see the differences between the families and how they responded to their child being deaf, as well as the two schools both siblings went to. I also learned some sign language from watching it, and made me curious to google more signs.